The US Treasury has sanctioned El Chapo’s son in connection with his siblings’ Los Chapitos network and the organization’s trafficking of illicit fentanyl and other lethal substances into the US.
The United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement Tuesday that Joaqun Guzmán López works hand in hand with his three brothers, Iván Guzmán Salazar, Jes Guzmán Salazar, and Ovidio Guzmán López, and is tasked with keeping a close eye on many of the Los Chapitos dealings.
Following the renowned kingpin’s arrest in Mexico in 2016 and extradition to the United States in 2017, a prominent group of their father’s Sinaloa Cartel is reported to have risen to control.
In July 2019, a federal court in New York found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.
According to the Department of Treasury, Joaqun Guzmán López controls the Los Chapitos network’s’super labs,’ which are supplied by the Sinaloan siblings Ludim Zamudio Lerna and Luis Zamudio Lerman.
All property in the possession of US citizens must be prohibited and disclosed under the sanctions. It also prohibits persons from engaging with those who have been sanctioned.
‘Today’s action continues to disrupt important nodes of the worldwide illicit fentanyl economy, including as makers, suppliers, and transporters,’ said Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. ‘Treasury will continue to leverage our authorities to isolate and disrupt Los Chapitos and the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations at every junction, in close coordination with the Government of Mexico and US law enforcement.’
In 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia indicted Joaqun Guzmán López on federal narcotics trafficking charges for the first time. On April 14, he was also charged in multiple superseding indictments in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The US Department of State is offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to his capture and/or conviction. There is also a $10,000 incentive for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ivan Guzmán Salazar and Jes Guzmán Salazar.
Meanwhile, Ovidio Guzmán López is imprisoned in Mexico City, seeking extradition to the United States.
Raymundo Pérez, purportedly the director of a network that supplies the Sinaloa Cartel with precursor chemicals used in drug production, was also sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Saul Paez, a relative of Joaqun Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López, was also sanctioned for allegedly coordinating cocaine shipments.
The federal agency also sanctioned Mario Ogazon, accusing him of purchasing precursor chemicals from Ludim Zamudio Lerma. He is said to be involved in the operations of the cartel’s labs.
The feds also sanctioned Sumilab, S.A., de C.V., a Sinaloa-based chemical and lab equipment company that provides and delivers precursor chemicals ‘for and to Sinaloa Cartel members and allies.’
A second company, named as Urbanisation, Real Estate and Construction Works, S.A. de C.V., was also approved.
Los Chapitos was accused in the indictment of flooding the streets of the United States with fentanyl during the last eight years, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Los Chapitos, according to the DEA, supplies fentanyl to 27 cities across the United States.
‘Our name’s fame has reached unanticipated heights. ‘We have never worked with fentanyl,’ said the letter. ‘However, it is widely practised in Sinaloa. That’s why there are seizures with first and last names like [investigations].
‘It’s easy to figure out who owns all those seizures. We have never intentionally developed partnerships with fentanyl traffickers. We want to be clear: Iván will never state or imply that ‘we would flood the streets of the United States with fentanyl.’
